Debra Williams’ role as a community engagement specialist with The Nature Conservancy means she talks to lots of people. But some of her phone conversations have stood out.
In one, a representative from Prairie Hills Elementary District 144 in Markham asked her to help judge a junior high science fair.
Another involved brainstorming as part of a course curriculum at Tinley Park and Hillcrest high schools.
For Williams, who is based at Markham’s Indian Boundary Prairies, the calls constituted “progress.”
“They reached out to us as members of the community,” she said. “It was evidence of us not just being in the community, but being part of the community.”
The preserved prairie properties in Markham predate the community that grew up around them over the last century or more. Scientists deemed them ecologically important enough to merit protection in the 1960s and they’ve been on the radar of scientists and educators ever since.
The ancient ecosystems have generated international interest, but Williams is more concerned about what’s on the “hearts and minds” of the preserves’ more immediate neighbors.
To that end, The Nature Conservancy, which manages the prairies in a partnership with Northeastern University, is seeking input from people who live in and around Markham about what they’d like to see happening at the preserves.
“It will help us plan around being a resource in the community that meets the peoples’ needs and wants,” Williams said.
An initial survey a couple years ago generated input, she said, but many responses were from far flung nature fans who’d long been aware of the prairies’ natural assets.
“We’re looking for Markham residents and the people around the area of Markham because we realized the comments we got before were not enough from the people in the immediate area,” she said.
The emphasis of this questionnaire is access. For years, much of the focus at the prairies has been on “helping nature,” Williams said. While that remains an important element, she’s working on developing relationships between people and nature.
“People also are part of the ecological landscape,” she said. “Too often we invite people to come and experience the prairies and tell other people about the prairies and there’s this sense of disconnection because I don’t really see you. I don’t see what you’re concerned about in this same area where the prairies are.
“We’re using the language of the prairies being part of the community and not just being in the community. We want to be sure it’s a dynamic and wholistic experience that connects people to people and people to nature.”
Williams connected with Vivian Turek, the science department supervisor at Bremen High School District 228. They’ve worked together to bring a monarch butterfly release to Hillcrest High School in Country Club Hills and plan field trips for biology students.
They also collaborated on a new environmental investigations course offered at Hillcrest and Tinley Park high schools, as well as promoting paid internship opportunities at the Markham prairies.
“(The interns) are doing work that the scientists do at the prairies,” Turek said. “They’re testing for different species and tracking plants and insects to see how things are changing.”
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Turek said it’s important for young people to discover natural assets such as the Markham prairies not just because of their scientific and historical value, but because of the intrinsic benefits they provide.
“What we have right here in our backyard, most people would think you would have to go to a different area,” she said. “We become so entwined with our suburban lifestyle, and then you go out to these prairies and you feel like time stands still. I think it relaxes people too.”
There also are opportunities for discovery, Williams said. Members of the Youth Environmental Thinkers group, another initiative meant to further the prairies an active part of the community, “found out there were strawberries there they could eat,” she said.
“The only way they found that out was by being there and experiencing it,” Williams said.
Those kinds of experiences draw a direct connection between the land and its natural history to the people who live nearby and their health, she said.
The Nature Conservancy’s questionnaire about Markham’s prairie preserves is available online at https://tinyurl.com/emsm73av.